Sibel Hodge has become a chick lit icon! She’s always over at Chick Lit Central on Facebook talking about her books and sharing her thoughts on other books, as well. We’ve had her at our blog for an interview and even had the opportunity to review some of her books. She’s done several giveaways, as well. Sibel has a fabulous giveaway for International Chick Lit Month….TWO e-book packages featuring three e-books each, plus her short story collection, “How to Dump Your Boyfriend in the Men’s Room” to go along with both packages. (For lucky readers anywhere in the world!) We’re also sharing our reviews for two of her books.

Gina wakes up one morning after drinking a lot of wine with her husband, Karl, and their friends, has a vision of a baby girl dressed in pink in their backyard and suddenly wants to become a mother! Shocking because up until that point, Gina has never had a maternal twinge!

“It’s this feeling I can’t explain. This desperate need inside me to have a baby. This urge that has completely turned my brain to single-train thoughts: baby, baby, baby.”

Welcome to the beginning of best-selling author, Sibel Hodge’s latest novel, THE BABY TRAP, loosely based on her own experience with infertility and attempts to get pregnant at IVF. You can expect to ride an emotional rollercoaster that is one hell of an E-ticket.

Once 33 year-old Gina and Karl decide to get pregnant, they figure all its going to take is sex, sex and well, some more sex. Gina doesn’t end up pregnant right away so conceiving becomes her OBSESSION, while Karl tries to keep his high-pressure job and provide what is needed from him for conception at precise timely intervals. Gina and Karl are soon off the booze, heavy on doctor visits, green tea, vitamins, a bland diet, no more baths or cycling for Karl and he’s wearing underwear ten sizes too big. A feng-shui expert is even called in, and she finds a new purpose for the most unlikely of objects.

I loved the snappy writing style of THE BABY TRAP. The story frequently had me laughing out loud. In addition to Gina and Karl, several other characters, her Lady Garden and her father and her fertility.com friend, Poppy were a lot of fun!

It takes two to get pregnant, and between all the drugs messing with mommy-to-be, Gina and daddy-to-be, Karl’s lifestyle changes, it’s a miracle they stayed together. There was a good part of the book when all they did was bicker, but they loved each other and that was their foundation. It’s a Sibel Hodge novel – chick-lit – you know in the end it’s going to be happy!

Anyone who has dealt with fertility issues will tell you it’s about disappointment and loss, the death of a dream. But there is plenty of living left to be done and that’s what Sibel Hodge does best in THE BABY TRAP. Sibel’s novel is about the future; Gina and Karl’s future together, and it offers hope for other women who have faced the heartache of infertility.

Review of “Fourteen Days Later” (published at Chick Lit Central on May 3, 2012)By Melissa Amster

I’m a fan of both “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” When I was told that “Fourteen Days Later,” by Sibel Hodge, was like a marriage of the two stories, I knew it was something I’d have to check out. What I got in return was a charming and adorable story with an unforgettable heroine!

Helen Grey has been pining after her ex-boyfriend for about six months when her best friend, Ayshe, decides to put her on a 14-day plan to get over him once and for all. Her plan forces Helen out of her house–and out of her element–teaching her more about herself than she ever thought possible, and even allowing for a possibility of romance in her life.

I really liked the concept of this novel. It makes me wonder if anyone actually has been part of a 14-day plan or designed such a plan for someone else. I don’t know that the plan was all too structured in the beginning, as it had Helen running around all over the place and doing crazy things without a sense of purpose. As Helen became more confident, her plan got even more interesting and I couldn’t wait to see what was in store each day. Then there was the factor of her romantic interest, whom I really liked, even though his behaviors were hard to predict sometimes. (And since I watch “Smash,” I picture Raza Jaffrey a.k.a. Dev playing him in a movie version.) There were a lot of funny moments, thanks to Helen being klutzier than Susan from “Desperate Housewives.” She even made me feel graceful in comparison! She was an endearing character and I found myself rooting for her at her good moments and getting all frustrated when things didn’t go her way.

There were, however, some things that didn’t work as well for this novel. I wouldn’t have minded if the obscure British name drops had some explanation to them, so I wasn’t sitting and wondering who Helen was referencing each time. The dialogue tended to get awkward and sound forced at times, which made the humor seem forced in that respect. (I did laugh out loud plenty of times, but after a while, Helen’s embarrassing moments seemed a bit over the top.) I liked the cultural rituals in preparation for Ayshe’s wedding, but I would have loved some background about why they were done. I’m not that familiar with the Turkish Cypriot culture and beliefs. Finally, it was sometimes tough to keep track of characters. A character would be mentioned early in the story and then not appear again until much later. It took me some time to remember who they were. After that point, Ms. Hodge kept them in the story more often and they added to the humorous moments.

Since I had “Fourteen Days Later” on my Kindle for PC, I was mainly reading it in the mornings (as my breakfast book), but it definitely gave me something to look forward to after getting myself and my kids ready for the day. I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen for Helen each day of her plan and I even got misty-eyed by the end. It was a sweet story that reminded me exactly why chick lit is still alive and stronger than ever.

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24 Responses to Chick lit….the Sibel Hodge way!

I feel like it is stronger then ever. More and more books/ebooks are coming out every day. Chick allows everyone to go into a world where they can buy what every they want (like Becky Bloomwood), Solve murder mysteries in a dorm (like Heather Wells) and more. It’s an escape for the real world into a world where anything can happen.

I think Chick Lit is still going strong, because it can be about a variety of subjects. And women can relate to them, especially where relationships are concerned, then we have motherhood, heartbreak and friendships. At least at some point in our lives we’ve all be affected by this or will be in the future. Authors want to write about what we can relate to, we can say “that is me and I’d do the same” sometimes when we finish a book we reflect on how much we’re like a person in a book and sometimes reading a book can help you sort a current problem. Reading for fun and helping you solve issues you didn’t know how to otherwise. What’s more better?

Chick Lit is alive and strong–because us woman need an escape. These books make us laugh, cry, remember the good old days, and most of all escape from out busy lives. They are not too heavy but very entertaining just what we need. I have enough “heavy” in my life and my favorite time of the day is escaping into one of my chick lit books,

How can chic lit not be alive and strong? Who doesn’t love a great story with love, romance, moodiness, fighting, sex, and happiness? I read a lil of everything, but chic lit is my always go to genre of books,

It’s alive & strong because the amazing authors continue to create these captivating stories and us fans continue to LOVE them and continue to buy them! Plain & simple. I believe it’s stronger than ever because of social media, too…..so thank u to Facebook and the many bloggers who continue to promote! I wouldn’t survive mother-hood and life in general if it weren’t for the ability to escape into my chick-lit and be taken away to New York’s finest shops and my favorite character’s charades and romantic-mishaps!

They are my tonic, my pick me up at the end of a long day. Fun and lighthearted, they swing me between thinking how silly the women involved in the stories are to get caught in such circumstances (and how I would NEVER be like that) to the realisation that actually I’m just like them and can totally relate to their situation. As long as there continues to be great authors prepared to write great chick lit, I will continue to devour it.

Chick lit is like a welcome breath of fresh air in the otherwise monotony of our work..What started as traditional chick lit has now taken a direction that is beginning to encompass so much more-from going on a shopping spree to fighting a near fatal malady to not only embracing motherhood but also working towards it to heartbreak & friendship as well as heartbreak in friendship… It is the perfect validation of an imperfect yet lovable women which we all can relate to…the self doubting, the aspirations, the juggling of the demands of family,career and self – it all makes us nod our head in recognition…That’s what makes chick lit strong & not “just” alive but vibrantly so…

I think chick lit is still alive and strong because of the escape it gives women, especially after a long day of working, working and raising a family, or being a stay-at-home mom (like me!) And we can usually relate to one or more characters in so many of these books, which makes us feel like we’re not alone. I absolutely love chick lit books, and I think it’s women like me who read these books who are keeping chick lit alive and strong, and thriving!

I think chick lit is still going strong because there is less shame in reading it – finally some of the stigma of lesser quality in writing, etc. has been debunked, or at least believed now. Hopefully there will just be more and more of it!

Chick Lit is alive and strong because “chicks” can relate to the books because are relevant to what we are going through. Books we can laugh about, or cry about, or both! Mainly they are just great books! Thanks for the giveaway!

Chick lit will still be written as long as there are readers and these blogs and this international month shows that there are still readers. A lot of us have been reading chick lit for years and will continue to look for books in this genre. We love it because it gives us something we can relate to. It’s not heaving bosoms and ripping bodices. They’ve got a storyline in addition to the romance, and sometimes romance doesn’t even really factor it. The genre provides a range and I love that. This community has really come together and has shown that they’ll stand by their authors even if traditional publishers are turning up their noses at chick lit. We all love chick lit here and will stick with our authors – so please keep giving us some more stories!

It gives some of us a place that we’ve never had before. I’ve never had a close circle of female friends. No one that I can rely on. I lose myself in these stories and I’ve met people who I can talk to on sites like these and then some in reality afterwards. It helps us feel connected in a way that never existed previously.

Chick Lit is actually one of the most enduring genres there is. Funny stories about romance have been with us since ancient times. What is Pride and Prejudice if not a romantic comedy? And Shakespeare wrote a whole lot of them. His Comedy of Errors is based on Plautus’s Menaechmi, which was taken from Greek comedy. As long as we have romantic love and people like to laugh, there will be “chick lit.”